To request sanctions against President Muhammadu Buhari and the Attorney General of Nigeria, Abubakar Malami, Special Counsel to the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Bruce Fein, has petitioned the US Senate and House of Representatives Committee Chairmen.
According to information obtained by Anaedoonline.ng, Fein is requesting punishment for the pair for keeping Nnamdi Kanu in custody despite an Appeal Court ruling directing his release.
The letter was captioned: “RE: Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act: Recommending President Joe Biden to impose sanctions against Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigerian Attorney General Abubakar Malami for gross violations of internationally recognized human rights against Biafran leader Nnamdi Kanu, including kidnapping, torture, and prolonged arbitrary detention to retaliate for exercising internationally recognized rights to freedom of expression and association.”
Nnamdi Kanu: Suspend Nigeria From United Nations Now – Bruce Fein
The IPOB leader’s attorney urged the legislature to pressure US President Joe Biden to impose severe sanctions on Buhari and Malami for disobeying both the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Opinion of the UN Human Rights Council and the Nigerian Appeal Court’s ruling ordering Kanu’s immediate release.
The lawyer asked Congress not to let Buhari and Malami get away with their mischief and lawlessness while equating them with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He addressed the letter to Richard Durbin, Senate Committee Chairman for the Judiciary, Jim Risch, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and Robert Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
There are also Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Pat Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Richard Shelby, Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sherrod Brown, Chairman of the House Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.
LATEST: Buhari Govt Appeals Court Judgement Freeing Nnamdi Kanu
The letter was also sent to Pat Toomey, ranking member of the Senate and chairman of the committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs, as well as Gregory Meeks, the head of the House committee on foreign relations.
Below is a full text of the letter:
“I represent Biafran leader Nnamdi Kanu.
“Mr. Kanu has been illegally detained in solitary confinement in cramped quarters for sixteen (16) months without adequate access to needed medical care or to counsel by Nigeria’s State Security Services controlled by President Muhammadu Buhari and Attorney General Abubakar Malami.
“Mr. Kanu’s detention followed his kidnapping, torture, and extraordinary rendition from Kenya in June 2021 to retaliate for advocating a Biafran independence referendum modeled on the United States-brokered 2011 referendum for South Sudan. Mr. Kanu opposes the use of force with the sole exception of self-defense.
“On July 20, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an Opinion finding Nnamdi Kanu’s detention in violation of sixteen (16) international human rights guarantees. The Opinion ordered his “immediate and unconditional release,” Opinion, paragraph 107. (See Attachment A). President Buhari and Attorney General Malami have ignored the directive for nearly three (3) months with no indication that compliance will ever be forthcoming.
“In January 2022, following the extraordinary rendition of Mr. Kanu, a Nigerian High Court judgment impliedly exonerated him from the Nigerian government’s Orwellian claim that he had jumped bail in evading its notorious attempted assassination.
“On October 13, 2022, the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, Abuja Judicial Division, Holden at Abuja, decreed that Nigeria’s detention of Mr. Kanu was illegal because of his extraordinary rendition from Kenya in violation of international and state laws. (See Attachment B). The Court ordered dismissal of all charges against him. Again, President Buhari and Attorney General Malami have flouted the Court’s orders and kept Nnamdi Kanu illegally detained.
“The Opinions of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Court of Appeals of Nigeria speak for themselves. They are crystal clear.
“Accordingly, I would respectfully urge you individually and collectively to recommend to President Joe Biden that he impose sanctions against President Buhari and Attorney General Malami for gross violations of Mr. Kanu’s internationally recognized human rights under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, 22 U.S.C. 2656 note, The sanctions should include ineligibility for a visa to enter the United States and blocking of all transactions in properties of Mr. Buhari and Mr. Malami in the United States.
“What Nigeria has done to Mr. Kanu is indistinguishable from Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Saudi Arabian Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman sending thugs abroad to poison, murder, torture, silence, and intimidate dissidents to their dictatorial regimes. They are a threat to international peace and security and subvert the rule-based international order championed by the United States.
“To permit President Buhari’s and Attorney General Malami’s thuggery to escape with impunity would be unacceptable.”
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